13 Japanese Beauty Ingredients To Look For
Posted on June 29 2020
Hey, again Cosme Hunters! It seems like spring has come and gone, and now it’s already time to get ready for some warm summer fun.
Summer’s not Summer without the food: lush green salad, tasty family chicken recipes and ice cream of all kinds are the season’s crop. But what does all this have to do with J-Beauty? You’d be surprised! This week, follow me on a tour of thirteen of Japan’s very best ingredients to keep an eye on while you explore J-Beauty products!
What's in the pantry?
Some of J-Beauty’s very biggest brands cite ingredients as the heart of their vision. Shiro even has its own cafes where it serves some of the ingredients it grows the most of as hip and tasty treats! These thirteen ingredients may be great in the kitchen, but today we focus on their huge potential in beauty products! I’ve broken them down so you can skip to the kinds that interest you most!
INGREDIENTS FOR YOUTHFUL SKIN
Green tea
First up, green tea! Green tea has a huge range of benefits to a healthy lifestyle. Two of these that we should be concerned about for keeping our skin looking youthful and natural is the high amount of nutrients green tea contains that can nourish skin and hair. It’s great to drink for health, but keep an eye out for green tea masks and hair treatments!
Kitao Collection is available at Cosme Hunt
Tsubaki Oil & Arbutin
Here’s a truly classic Japanese ingredient! Try out some J-Beauty with tsubaki oil- it’s full of tons of gifts for your skin! Its can penetrate deep with nutrients to help firm up your skin and even out tone in a way that will keep your skin looking young. If that sounds good, check out arbutin too- a serum made with either can balance out your skin tone like magic.
Bamboo
Bamboo! Yep, that’s right, even bamboo has some major usage as a beauty ingredient. The trick is using its many forms- both sap and powder made from bamboo are going to be big game changers for your skin. Keep an eye out- if a product uses bamboo, there’s a ton of different forms it could take!
Kombu
The superstar ingredient of the J-Beauty titan Shiro, Kombu is a gem of a J-Beauty ingredient. It might be common in the kitchen, being made into noodle dishes or loads of other tasty things, but this special kelp can do a whole lot for moisture retention. That gives it a wide range of uses, and Shiro’s brand makes tons of practical products out of them!
Available at Shiro
Soy
Covered before on our site, Soy has a huge range of ways to help you out in the health department. Today though, we are mostly interested in the nourishing and refreshing power of soy milk! Not just for drinking, there’s a great deal of moisture power to draw out of fermented soy milk.
If you want to try out some natural soy powered moisturization, check out the superstar line of soy products from Sana! They’re a fantastic and natural way to work soy into your skincare routine.
Available at Cosme Hunt
INGREDIENTS FOR SKINCARE
Konnyaku
Konnyaku, or Konjac, is a pretty popular choice for sponges! A bit like a miraculous potato, this plant is absolutely chock full of nutrients! This makes it a great choice for skincare and cleansing, and using a konnyaku sponge is a great natural way to keep your skin feeling healthy all year round.
Persimmon
Have you ever heard of a persimmon? I first heard about it as just a fruit, but looking around proved this antioxidant-rich ingredient has loads of uses! What helps it stand apart from the crowd is the way that persimmon can be used to deal with certain aging hormones that impact the scent of our skin, so keep an eye out for nourishing and cleansing persimmon next time you’re shopping for products!
Sake
Sake? Yes, Sake! Sake’s fermentation gives it lots of surprising beauty benefits! From Sake baths to more simple products made out of it, there are loads of ways to enjoy Sake and its many components to keep your skin feeling fresh and clean. Look forward to rejuvenation and refreshing feelings after using a Sake product.
Rice
Rice? That’s right! Humble rice has loads of potential once you grind it up into a powder and use it in your beauty routine as a mask! The coarseness helps to naturally cleanse your face and exfoliate simply. This is just one use, but when looking for trustworthy ingredients for a face mask, what’s more familiar than rice? A similar thing can be done with Adzuki beans! A popular candy and ice cream ingredient also known as red bean, you can get lots of skin rejuvenation out of some adzuki powder too. Additionally, read up on Cosme Hunt about the benefits of rice water if that’s more your style.
Jabara
Rounding out this section is Jabara extract! Jabara might not sound familiar outside Japan, but it’s common citrus just like oranges or lemons. Jabara and its relative yuzu are popular for their vitamin C and other fruity benefits. Put together with other ingredients, this little fruit can be elevated to make some truly special products.
Fortunately, Beauty Pie has done just that! Championing Jabara and creating a solid J-Beauty product, they offer some great ways to cleanse and protect your face using the fruit itself! Take a look at this impressive Japanfusion line.
Available at Beauty Pie
There we have it! I hope you enjoyed this tour of some classic and fun J-Beauty ingredients- whether for health, cooking or beauty, I sure hope you found a new favorite! Stay tuned all summer for more articles from our blog team!
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Arya Arsenault
Studies Japanese language and culture at the University of Massachusetts. Loves Japan’s pop culture and learning about its trends!
